Thanks Oscar and morning crew.
Half-time round-up:
A week of explosive gains extended into a fourth session as the big banks continued to recover and rising iron ore prices propelled miners to seven-year highs.
The ASX 200 rallied 75 points or 1.2% to 6101 mid-session, positioning the index for its best close since early October. At its peak this morning, the benchmark index had put on more than 240 points in four sessions, fuelled by strengthening commodity prices and relief that the Royal Commission into finance did not come down harder on the big four banks.
The metals & mining sector advanced 1.3% to a level last seen in February 2012. Iron ore steadied overnight near a two-year high at US$86.65 a tonne, well up on the US$75 mark it held before Brazilian giant Vale declared force majeure on some of its contracts after the collapse of a tailings dam in Brazil.
The financial sector rose 1.6% to its strongest level since early November as UK banking group Cybg PLC surged 18% on a trading update. Also strong: health +1.4%, I.T. +1.2% and energy +1.1%.
The gains came despite a soft night on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 eased 0.22% to end a five-session winning run. US futures continued to deteriorate this morning, S&P 500 futures recently down five points or 0.18%.
Most Asian markets remained closed for lunar New Year holidays. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.81%.
Crude oil futures faded 24 cents or 0.44% this morning to $US53.77 a barrel. Gold futures shed $5.60 or 0.43%to $US1,308.80 an ounce. The dollar was buying 71 US cents.
Trading: Been a challenging week. Had more trades than usual go against me lately. Either I'm on the wrong trades or most 'good news' is being used as a volume event for fundies to exit. Took ESE early on but the tug of war at 3.5c ground away at my nerves and I ended up exiting for a peanut profit. That's what tends to happen when you're on a bad roll - you lose faith in your method and start snatching at profits instead of letting them run. Turns into a negative feedback loop. CAT's announcement was far from good news, but it came low enough for a speculator. Still waiting for the bounce.
